Persistent threats to the human family that emerge and reemerge across the face of Earth with potential to cause extinction or near-extinction. Pandemics can be combated through accelerated medical research at the International Space Station.

A partnership among Canada, Europe, Japan, Russia and the United States. The ISS is a precedent for and a record of lessons learned in planning and executing multinational collaborative space exploration initiatives.

The human family lives within a reality of planet-life ending radiation from gamma-rays, which can occur any moment by the right type of imploding star within the Milky Way galaxy. Current and future human generations must either evade or somehow confront this natural lethal mega-force.

Freshwater scarcity/stress affects different sub-regions of Earth differently. The problem can be approached through using space-based solar power for energy-intensive seawater desalination followed by pipeline infrastructure projects.

Frank White uses interviews and writings by 29 astronauts and cosmonauts to show how circling the Earth every 90 minutes and viewing it from our moon have profoundly affected their perceptions of themselves, their world and the future. White imagines how a permanent perspective from outer space beyond excessive nationalism can affect politics, religion, social relations, psychology, economics and the hard sciences. Potential rebellion by human space settlers and human contact with extraterrestrial beings are also examined.